Active exhaust ventilation shaft of KWK Staszic-Wujek colliery, Katowice-Kostuchna, with headframe surviving at surface.
Szyb Zygmunt is a ventilation shaft associated with KWK Murcki, a hard coal colliery whose origins date to 1769 in the Kostuchna district of Katowice. The shaft was constructed as a peripheral ventilation and materials shaft with a circular cross-section, internal diameter of 7.5 metres, concrete lining, and a target depth of 659.0 metres, with shaft stations at levels 242, 326, 411 and 600 metres. In December 1990 the shaft's equipment arming was discontinued, leaving only the ventilation function.
The shaft thereafter served as an exhaust ventilation shaft. It was subsequently modernised and re-equipped to serve also as a materials shaft for oversize loads. The shaft is located on ul.
Głuszców / ul. Boya-Żeleńskiego in Katowice-Kostuchna, within the former Boże Dary surface complex. It continues to function as one of the three active ventilation shafts of the Ruch Murcki-Staszic of KWK Staszic-Wujek.
Szyb Zygmunt belongs to the Murcki colliery tradition, one of the oldest continuously operating coal mines in Poland, with formal origins in 1769 in Murcki (now a district of Katowice). The mine exploited the Emanuel seam. In 1976 KWK Boże Dary was merged into KWK Murcki, with the production complex progressively relocated to the Boże Dary surface site in Kostuchna, where Szyb Zygmunt is located.
Szyb Zygmunt was constructed as a peripheral ventilation and materials shaft. It has a circular cross-section with an internal diameter of 7.5 metres in concrete lining, a target depth of 659.0 metres, and shaft stations at levels 242, 326, 411 and 600 metres, with a pump chamber planned at the 620-metre level. In December 1990 the shaft arming was discontinued and only the ventilation function was retained.
The shaft served as an exhaust ventilation shaft, discharging air from the Murcki-Staszic workings and, following the transfer of part of the Boże Dary workings to Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń, also from the SRK field "F". Szyb Zygmunt has a diameter of 7.5 metres and inlet connections at levels 242 m (single-sided), 326 m (double-sided), 411 m (double-sided), 582 m (double-sided) and 611 m (single-sided). On 1 January 2010 KWK Murcki was merged with KWK Staszic to form KWK Murcki-Staszic.
Szyb Zygmunt continued as one of the ventilation shafts of the combined enterprise. Following an incident on 27 July 2016, during which a methane concentration spike in the shaft required emergency ventilation shutdown and evacuation of 19 workers, the shaft's ventilation infrastructure was reviewed. The shaft was subsequently modernised and converted from an exclusively exhaust ventilation function to a combined ventilation and materials shaft capable of handling oversize loads, relieving the other shafts.
The shaft serves the Ruch Murcki-Staszic workings in the Giszowiec I and Murcki I mining areas. On 1 April 2017 KWK Murcki-Staszic was transferred to Polska Grupa Górnicza, and on 1 January 2021 merged with KWK Wujek to form KWK Staszic-Wujek. Szyb Zygmunt remains one of three active ventilation shafts listed for the Ruch Murcki-Staszic, alongside Szyb IV and Szyb V.